Abstract

The goal of this study is to investigate the area of young children’spreconceptions in science. The research focuses on teachers working in public andprivate kindergartens, and children attending these kindergartens, aged from threeto five and a half years old. The area of the children’s preconceptions, has beenextensively investigated by other researchers in the past but research focusing onearly-years teachers and children’s preconceptions is still almost untouched,especially when talking about Cyprus. Inspired mostly by other countries’literature and the importance of foreign research results, this study aims atidentifying the Cypriot teachers’ appreciation of the children’s preconceptions bydiscovering whether teachers identify and take into account the children’spreconceptions when planning and teaching a Natural Sciences lesson. It alsoaims at giving suggestions and implications on how teachers can respond to thepreconceptions that children might have. To do this, a case study has been appliedto facilitate the utilization of a number of different methods, like questionnaires,interviews, focus groups, observations and a minor document analysis. The resultsindicate that teachers tend to avoid identifying the children’s preconceptions whenteaching Natural Sciences. This indicates that there is lack of appreciation of thechildren’s preconceptions and their consequences when not acknowledged. It alsoindicates that teachers in Cyprus are not aware of the constructivist theory and itsimportance in children’s learning. As a result, teachers in Cyprus need to be bettertrained and informed in regard to the children’s preconceptions and to NaturalSciences in general. To help teachers respond to the children’s preconceptions, thestudy develops a list of children’s common preconceptions and a number ofdifferent ideas and suggestions for proper methods which can be used to helpteachers identify the children’s preconceptions and guide children to overcomingthem.